Zoya,

There is an IRS regulation that impacts your institutional non- profit
status related to IP.

I can send more info if you're interested

John Sites
Sent from my iPhone

On May 14, 2010, at 14:11, Zoya Hamilton <xxxxxx@TUFTS.EDU>
wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I found out from a colleague at Tech Transfer at my university that
> some industries are balking at negotiating IP ownership because,
> according to them, some universities started giving away their IP
> rights in the last few years. To quote one industry representative,
> "several years ago it would have been impossible for a company to
> negotiate a contract that would not assign IP to a university. But
> times are different now. Several schools (and names of schools were
> given which I won't repeat) are willing to give away their IP rights
> so we will just contract this work to them".
>
> IP ownership is a huge issue for us. Some of our buildings are
> funded by tax-free bonds, thus making us subject to the IRS
> guidelines prohibiting giving away intellectual property (to be
> exact,  there is a very small percentage of income exempt from this
> regulation, but it is so small that in practice it means that no
> sponsor-funded IP can be given away). I imagine not all universities
> are in this situation. For those of you that have the flexibility to
> give away IP, what are the circumstances when you are willing to do
> it? For those of you that are like us, how often do your
> collaborations fall apart because of this issue?
>
> Also, in view of the comment from the company, do you think we
> should all stick to our guns and be unwilling to give away IP? We
> would certainly have better collective leverage, but is there even a
> way to climb back up that slippery slope?
>
> Thank you for the input into this conversation.
>
> Zoya
>
> --
> Zoya Hamilton, CRA
> Sr. Associate Director, Research Administration
> Office of the Vice Provost
> Tufts University
> Tel (617) 636-6709
> Fax (617) 636-2917
> http://researchadmin.tufts.edu/
>
>
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